Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Changeling, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Appearance vs. Reality
Passion, Sanity, and Identity
Transaction and Commodification
Destiny vs. Agency
Summary
Analysis
Back at the castle, Vermandero compliments Alsemero, lamenting that he does not have a second daughter to give to Alsemero as a wife. Beatrice is listening—and after her father and beloved leave, she celebrates the fact that Alsemero has so quickly earned her father’s love and respect. DeFlores now enters, having just disposed of Alonzo’s body. Though DeFlores committed murder in cold blood, he feels no guilt. Instead, he can only think of what Beatrice might give him in thanks.
The trust between Vermandero and Alsemero is ironic—if Beatrice only waited a few more days, perhaps she could have found a legitimate path toward marrying Alsemero. But instead, as DeFlores’s untimely reentrance makes clear, she has chosen to pursue her plan with deceit and murder, condemning herself to a path of secrecy.
Themes
DeFlores announces that the deed is done, and Beatrice celebrates (“my joy starts at mine eyes; our sweet’st delights are ever born more weeping”). He then presents Beatrice with Alonzo’s diamond ring, still attached to Alonzo’s finger. Beatrice is horrified by this, though DeFlores does not quite understand her reaction—after all, if Beatrice urged DeFlores to stab a man through the heart, why does she now turn her nose up at a severed finger? Beatrice explains that the ring was something Vermandero made her send to Alonzo, and DeFlores jokes that Alonzo has now had to “send it back again.”
Beatrice now proves Tomazo’s statement about her false eyes correct: though Beatrice will later publicly lament Alonzo’s death, her eyes reveal that she actually feels joy about the murder. The symbolism of eyes thus continues to be complicated, as eyesight remains unreliable while eyes themselves provide some insight into a character’s interiority. Beatrice’s hypocritical opposition to the diamond ring is also important, as it shows how much her wealth usually insulates her from messy reality. While Beatrice can fathom gruesome deeds like murder, she hopes that the actual, awful labor will live solely with her employees.
Themes
Beatrice tells DeFlores to keep the ring as part of his payment, in addition to 3,000 golden florins. But DeFlores is terribly offended by this offer; “do you place me in the rank of verminous fellows to destroy things for wages?” he asks Beatrice. DeFlores explains that if he had been in it for the money, he would have hired someone else to kill Alonzo.
Though DeFlores has frequently mentioned needing money, his refusal to accept payment for his crime signals his opposition to Beatrice’s transactional view of the world. Whereas Beatrice wants to buy and sell her dirty work, DeFlores prioritizes relationship above “verminous” exchange.
Themes
Panicked by DeFlores’s refusal of her money, Beatrice offers to double the price, or to pay whatever sum DeFlores might ask of her—as long as he will run away from the castle. However, DeFlores points out that his absence would immediately cast suspicion on Beatrice. Beatrice has to admit that this loathsome fact is true—and that she and DeFlores are now bound together.
Beatrice’s disbelief that DeFlores might turn down her money suggests that she has never before had to deal with a situation money could not solve. Beatrice’s clueless behavior thus reveals one of the show’s sharpest class critiques—the play suggests that wealthiest people in society are unequipped to deal with their own mistakes because they are so frequently able to buy their way out of trouble.
Themes
Literary Devices
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As if to cement this connection, DeFlores leans in to kiss Beatrice. She dodges him, shocked, but DeFlores will not be deterred; in an aside, Beatrice blames herself for the servant’s newfound boldness. DeFlores insists that the only way Beatrice can repay him for his murder is by losing her virginity to him. And though Beatrice protests that DeFlores’s language offends her modesty, DeFlores points out the hypocrisy in this claim: “a women dipped in blood,” he laughs, “and talk of modesty!”
Beatrice’s continued use of the aside shows that she is still trying to avoid any real intimacy with DeFlores, despite the brutal deeds that DeFlores believes should bind them together. As she did earlier in the play, Beatrice tries to use her appearance—as a pretty, “modest” young virgin—to avoid taking responsibility for her more manipulative behavior.
Themes
Beatrice now regrets everything, confessing that she would rather have married Alonzo and suffered with him forever than ever hear DeFlores speak these words. But DeFlores keeps going, reminding Beatrice that they are now “equal” in terms of the sins they have committed. “Settle you in what the act has made you,” DeFlores taunts, “you are no more now. You must forget your parentage to me; y’are the deed’s creature now.”
In this vital speech, DeFlores challenges the idea that fate, appearance, or status determine a person’s identity. Instead, he argues that the only “you” that can ever exist is the consequence of one’s actions (or “deeds”). In his formulation, people have agency to overcome or lose the benefits of their predetermined “parentage,” but they can never shirk responsibility for their “acts.”
Themes
DeFlores calls Beatrice a “whore”—and then vows that, if she refuses to have sex with him, he will confess their joint crime to everyone. This shocks Beatrice, but DeFlores explains that he places no real value on his life; the only thing that actually brings him happiness is the idea that he could one day be with Beatrice. On her knees, Beatrice offers DeFlores all the gold she has access to, but he reiterates that no amount of money will ever dissuade him from his goal.
Even as DeFlores resents Beatrice’s transactional view of money, he sees sex as a similar exchange. Moreover, like many of the male characters in the play, DeFlores commodifies Beatrice’s virginity and sexuality as a valuable thing to take and possess. Even as DeFlores focuses more on relationships than Beatrice, then, he cannot completely shake her transactional perspective.
Themes
Finally, Beatrice gives in, reflecting that “murder […] is followed by more sins.” DeFlores lifts Beatrice into his arms, promising her that she will have peace “forever” because she has “yield[ed]” to him. As DeFlores carries Beatrice offstage, he insists that one day she will learn to love him, even though she protests against him now.
Beatrice’s grammar here is vital: rather than acknowledging her own choices and “deeds,” Beatrice reflects that murder simply “is followed” by adultery. By using passive voice instead of active voice, Beatrice thus blames fate for her own wrongdoing rather than owning up to and trying to change her behavior.
Themes
Literary Devices
